{"nrhp_refnum":"71001048","name":"Tredegar Iron Works","other_names":[],"category":"district","location":{"address":"500 Tredegar St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Richmond (Independent City)","county":"Richmond (city and county)","state":"VA","lat":37.53571409800006,"lon":-77.44453062464872,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1971-07-02","is_nhl":true,"nhl_designated_date":"1977-12-22","areas_of_significance":["Industry","Military"],"significance_levels":["national"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A 22-acre industrial district at 500 Tredegar Street in downtown Richmond, Virginia, between the James River and the James River and Kanawha Canal. It contains iron works structures dating from the late 1830s to World War I.","why_significant":"Under Joseph R. Anderson, Tredegar was the third largest iron works in the United States in 1861 and the Confederacy's main heavy ordnance producer. It cast cannon, rolled plates for the ironclad Virginia (Merrimac), and served as a testing ground for new weapons. Four historic buildings and several ruins survive.","narrative":"Tredegar Iron Works occupies about 22 acres in downtown Richmond, between the James River and the James River and Kanawha Canal. Founded in 1837 and named by its designer and builder Reev Davis, it grew under Joseph R. Anderson, who took charge in 1841 and expanded it into the third largest iron works in the country by 1861. During the Civil War it cast much of the Confederacy's heavy ordnance, built machinery for other arsenals, and rolled plates for the ironclad Virginia. Experiments with early submarines, torpedoes and machine guns were also carried out there. Four red brick buildings survive: the Office Building, the restored New Gun Foundry, the Spike Factory and the Company Store, along with ruins of the old gun foundry, locomotive shop and rolling mill. Later structures include a World War I shell foundry. After a 1952 fire the company moved in 1957, and the site became a research and storage facility.","period_of_significance":"1841-65","architect_builder":"Reev Davis and others","architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"Used as a research, laboratory and storage facility by the Ethyl Corporation; the New Gun Foundry has been restored and is empty, and the Company Store is vacant and boarded up.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:51:56.964106-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/37/6791/41679137/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_VA/71001048_NHL.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/71001048/1d6d200717-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/71001048/1d6d200717-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Alexander Gardner","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Alexander_Gardner_-_1865_-_Tredegar_(Detail_of_iron_works).jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Alexander Gardner</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Alexander_Gardner_-_1865_-_Tredegar_(Detail_of_iron_works).jpg"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"71000982","name":"James River and Kanawha Canal Historic District","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/virginia/james-river-and-kanawha-canal-historic-district-71000982/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/41679137","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tredegar_Iron_Works","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7837469"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/virginia/richmond/tredegar-iron-works-71001048/"}